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LETTER TO THE EDITOR| Reject HR 875

A bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives, House Resolution 875, which would create a new bureaucracy in the Health and Human Services Agency that will be responsible for regulating food production from farm to table. This bill could have dire effects on Pam’s Produce, Bur Oak Acres, Tilth, Bayview Farmers Market, to name a few; essentially every form of local food sourcing.

Local food sourcing is a growing economy. It creates a better and safer source of food with a lower carbon footprint, which challenges the oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry (think growth hormone and anti-biotics in animals) and the agroindustry giants like Monsanto, ADM, and Cargill, whose practices have depleted the soil and food quality for half a century.

This bill, according to the Wilson County News of Tennessee, is 90 pages long. It ostensibly is about food safety. It can be found at the Library of Congress Web site, where I located it. This bill needs to die. If you care about the security of food, if you care about the quality of food, if you care about the economy of food, then this bill needs your attention.

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